Rapids Camp Lodge guests, Roger Stevenson and his daughter Sasha, showing off the beauty of the American. Photo: Adam Jackson.

Deneki family member, Adam Jackson, is back with a great write up about a special, rugged, but all the more rewarding Alaskan fishery.

Adam is a long time guide of the Bristol Bay area at Rapids Camp Lodge, our fly-out operation on the Naknek River in Alaska. He’s seen plenty of unique fisheries and today he shares some of the details about one of his favorites for trout and Arctic char, the American River.

Take it away Adam!

American the Beautiful

It’s held by many anglers as the jewel of the Katmai National Park’s trout inhabited watersheds. Twenty eight river miles of prime, blue ribbon, gold medal, what ever you want to call it, bad ass fly fishing water.

Through alpine tundra, shear faced river canyons, and stunning boreal forests, the American River flows from Hammersly Lake to Coville Lake, loosing over 1800 feet of elevation along its path (a drop of roughly 4 feet every 100 yards). Much of it is inaccessible, receiving little pressure from anglers, with the exception of a dozen or so raft trips each summer.

Access

A bush plane is required for reaching the few access points on the American and our Rapids Camp operation is one of only a handful of operators that has their finger on the pulse of this incredible fishery.

Fishing the American is not for the faint of heart however. The hiking and wading can be difficult. On the other hand, we’ve found this can be a good thing by keeping the crowds at bay and a vast majority of the fish virgin lipped. A solid day trip to the American River can entail anywhere from a two to seven mile hike depending on the targeted water and of course, the angler’s ambition.

Water Type

Running gin clear the upper stretches of the American consist of endless pocket water and spawning flats, dappled with the occasional bucket or run.

The middle portion on the other hand has a steeper gradient and many boulders that are slicked with a thin green algae washed by swift knee to waist deep water. So the odds of taking a dip are pretty good if you’re truly getting after it.

The lower section is permitted water, regulated by the park service with characteristics of deep runs, switch back gravel bars, sweepers, and log jams.

The Fishing

As a tailwater, the American River fishes well through the entire season. Extremely diverse and bountiful, with Smolt, sculpin, prolific bug hatches, and salmon bio mass filling the trout’s dinner platter. It’s always good practice to pack your bug boxes and plenty of gink, even through the month of September. Otherwise, a good mouse or fry pattern will produce regularly. Flesh of course is a great late season go to as well, not to mention just about any black or white sleechy critter.

When the salmon are in, covering water is typically the name of the game. Particular flats and runs where salmon are spawning are sure to hold a majority of the fish. However, that area can span several miles. Therefore, it is important to locate these areas in order to increase your chances of getting into ’em. A competent, well seasoned eye that knows the water and how to read it from the air is the key to great success on the American River.

At Andros South, we have a pretty cool natural phenomenon that makes for a pretty epic bonefishing location. Due to an intricate network of bights and creeks, a close proximity to extremely deep water (try over 5,000 feet), and relatively strong prevailing winds, at any given time we are able to witness opposite tides on opposite sides of the island. In other words, when it’s high tide on the east side of the island, it’s low tide on the west side of the island.. And vice versa.

What does this mean? It means that we rarely have to fish a tide that isn’t ideal, or waste quality fishing time waiting out the wrong tide. Our guides can almost always run to the ideal tidal condition, regardless of the timing of the tide, and we think that’s pretty special.

In order to travel back and forth between the East and West sides of Andros Island, our guides travel through the expansive network of tidal creeks carved throughout the island. Somewhere around the center of the island, these creeks cross a ridge dubbed ‘The Devil’s Backbone,’ that is often the most shallow point connecting the East and West side of the island. While the super-complex tidal system on Andros still leaves us scratching our head from time to time, what we do know is that this is where the change occurs.. Where high tide transforms to low tide.. And we think that’s pretty darn cool.

Meet Brownie. Brownie belongs to one of our guides named Sparkles.. Yes Sparkles. If you’ve spent any time at Andros South, odds are you’ve met Brownie, or perhaps her long line of family named ‘Cookie.’ We consider Brownie to be part of the family, and as you can see, she’s pretty excited.

Why is she so excited? Because tomorrow we kick off our bonefishing season at Andros South. Let the bonefishing begin!

All of our tent cabins at Alaska West have names that mean something to the operation – like Chinook, Grand Slam, Rainbow, etc. That sign up above is from the Kanektok Cabin. Isn’t that a lot better than being in “Cabin #2”?

Fast-paced action. There are definitely fisheries in Alaska that are extremely quality- and technique-oriented – but pretty much all season long at both of our Alaska operations, we can take you to places where you’ll lose count – we promise.

Being ‘in the industry’ we get asked this question all the time, and it’s a tough one!

“You get to fish in a lot of amazing places – what’s your favorite?” We typically stammer around and come up with some sort of cop-out response like “it depends on the time of year” or “it’s all about who who’s on the trip”…but it the end generally we’ll settle on a favorite.

So today we’re turning the tables and sending the question your way.

What’s Your Favorite Place to Go Fishing? Why?

Setting aside time of year, weather, fishing mates, all that stuff – what’s your favorite place to go fishing? Put another way, if tomorrow was the last day you could go fishing, where would you go? Most importantly, why?

Wading for bonefish is fun. We hear from many of our guests at Andros South that targeting bonefish on foot is the most enjoyable way of spending the day on the flats, and we couldn’t agree more. Sometimes fishing from the boat is the most productive method, but stalking fish on foot can make for some special days indeed!

If they’re lucky (and up for a bit of a hike), our guests will occasionally spend the day fishing what our guides call, the ‘lakes.’ No, not the freshwater lakes you might be thinking of. Think large, tidally influenced, inland saltwater flats.

Depending on the tide, shocking numbers of bonefish frequent these lakes to feed, often times becoming landlocked until the next available tide. Due to extremely shallow water and mangroves, most of these lakes are not accessible by boat, often times requiring a bit of a hike through the mangroves.

But on a good day, most find the hike in well worth it. Hit it right, and its not uncommon to walk up on hundreds of bonefish feeding in extremely shallow water, with no place to go…seriously!

At Andros South we spend lots of time fishing the West Side of Andros Island – the vast coast and creek systems on the side of the island opposite the ‘civilization’. The past few years we’ve ramped up our time in the West to the point where maybe 75% of our days one or more of our boats head over.

Here are…

Four Reasons We Love Fishing the West Side

Big Singles and Doubles. The West has fewer huge groups of bonefish, and more singles and doubles – the fish are spread out over there. It’s a perfect spot for anglers who like classic shots at cruising fish. Also, very big fish live here.

Easy Access. We keep our boats at the mouth of Little Creek…which just so happens to cut through the interior of South Andros and open up on the West Side. There’s no long pounding boat ride involved to fish the West from Andros South – it’s easy even if it’s breezy.

‘Alternate Species’. Especially in the late spring and early summer, the West Side is an excellent place to go if you think it’s cool to cast at fish whose names start with the letters ‘t’ and ‘p’.

Mind-Boggling Expanse. It’s really hard to explain if you haven’t seen it – hundreds of miles of shoreline, thousands of flats, hundreds of intricate creek systems…and maybe a handful of boats on a busy day.

An extremely well-traveled angling editor fished the West Side this spring and commented “man, I’d fish over here every day if I could”. We couldn’t agree more.

Pro Tip: If you want to sound like a local, call it ‘The Back’ – e.g. “Hey Freddie, I’d love to head up in The Back today – how’s that sound?”

Drop us a line if you’d like to hear more about our program on the West Side.

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Deneki Outdoors operates fishing lodges in Alaska, The Bahamas, British Columbia, and Chile.

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